General system for public libraries

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The General Systematics for Public Libraries (ASB) is a classification that is used primarily in the old federal states of Germany by numerous public libraries - albeit with different, often in-house variants. As a listing system, it serves both the subject indexing and the systematic listing of non-fiction and, since the revision in 1999, also fiction .

The ASB was originally developed in the 1950s (“General Systematics for Libraries”); according to the prevailing circumstances (many places change from the bar library on open shelves ) it must be regarded as a response to the then relatively new in Germany open access at local libraries. The development took place in particular at the Association of Libraries of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia , supported by speakers from the magazine Bücherei und Bildung .

Two minor revisions (published in 1977 and 1981) introduced only minor changes in the areas of social science and technology. The unsatisfactory situation, especially for medium-sized and larger public libraries after more than 35 years of work with the ASB, finally led in 1992 to the then German Library Institute (DBI) declaring that it was ready to revise it. A year later, a corresponding agreement on revision, further development and maintenance was made with the Association of Librarians at Public Libraries (VBB) as the owner of the copyrights. The work of the DBI and a working group resulted in the publication of a comprehensive, but not radical, revision in 1999. This has been used, for example, by ekz.bibliotheksservice GmbH (formerly the purchasing center for public libraries) in its information and meeting services since 2000 .

A first corrected version appeared in 2003; Due to the winding up of the DBI, no further update was made until 2009, the German Library Association , the Professional Association of Information Library (as the successor to the VBB) and the ekz, in a systematic cooperation, took on the further work. This culminated in an online publication. In addition to constant further development, a bilateral approximation of the classification for general libraries (KAB), which is mainly used in the new federal states of Germany, is also planned.

ASB notations are alphanumeric, so they are mixed notations (in contrast to pure notations that only consist of letters or only digits). Letters and digits are to be read according to the type of decimal classification, i. H. each letter and number stand for a structural level. Together with the formal classification criteria (author or title of a medium), these notations show the location of a medium on the shelf as a signature . They can therefore be found both in library databases where card catalogs are still available and on the signature labels attached to the media.

The ASB is divided into 23 so-called main groups, to which the capital letters A to Z are assigned (with the exception of the letters I, J and Q). Fiction is only assigned to the last main group Z, which has been new since 1999, as requiring relatively little subdivision.

The main groups (which themselves are not populated) are subdivided into groups and up to 4 subgroups with the help of up to 2 lowercase letters and up to 3 digits, for example

E. History, contemporary history
Em German history
Emp German history from 1815 to the present
Emp 8 German history from 1945 to the present
Emp 82 German history from 1945 to 1990
Emp 820 History of the Federal Republic from 1949 to 1990

The lack of coverage of the ASB, which is primarily intended for small and medium-sized libraries (especially since the revision in 1999), prompted libraries in North Rhine-Westphalia to develop further and in-house as early as the 1960s; u. a. the Duisburg City Library delivered a much more detailed variant of the ASB, which has established itself alongside the ASB under the name SSD and is mainly used in larger city libraries. The standard system for South Tyrolean libraries is also originally based on the ASB.

literature

  • General system for libraries. Developed by the Systematics Committee at the Association of Libraries of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Reutlingen 1956
  • General system for public libraries. ASB. Developed by the Systematics Committee at the Association of Libraries of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. 2., revised. Aufl. Verl. Documentation, Munich 1977. ISBN 3-7940-5139-4
  • General system for public libraries. ASB. Developed by the Systematics Committee at the Association of Libraries of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. 3rd, revised. Bock + Herchen, Bad Honnef, 1981. ISBN 3-88347-174-7
  • General system for public libraries. (ASB). Edited by the subject indexing department of the German Library Institute with the participation of the “ASB revision” working group. Edition 1999. German Library Institute, Berlin 1999. ISBN 3-87068-616-2
  • General system for public libraries. (ASB). Structure and alphabetical index of keywords. Edited by the subject indexing department of the German Library Institute with the participation of the “ASB revision” working group. Edition 1999, amended and corrected version 2002. Bock + Herchen, Bad Honnef 2003. ISBN 3-88347-230-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ General systematics for libraries, Reutlingen 1956, p. 7
  2. ^ General systematics for public libraries, Berlin 1999, pp. 585ff.
  3. ↑ Book and Library, Vol. 65 (2013), H. 1, P. 19f.
  4. ↑ Cooperation agreement (PDF; 1.9 MB) for systematic maintenance of the general systematics for public libraries (ASB) and the classification for general libraries (KAB)
  5. ^ Website of the systematic cooperation for the two classifications ASB and KAB
  6. ^ General systematics for public libraries, Berlin 1999, p. 585